"That was Clarke, of course."
"Of course. Then imagine the light turned down, and the usual floating guitar--in the dark, of course--and rappings and whispers and the touch of hands--all in the dark. Then imagine--this will make you laugh--some kind of horn or megaphone of tin, that rambled around invisibly, distributing voices of loved ones here and there like sweetmeats out of a cornucopia--"
"You mean the spirits spoke through that thing?"
"That's what they all believed."
"But you don't think the girl--"
"Who else? Some of the voices were women's and one or two were children's. Clarke couldn't do the children's voices."
"I can't believe it of her! Clarke must have done them. He's capable of anything, but I don't, I won't believe such baseness of that girl."
"It hurts me to admit it, Kate, but I am forced to believe that she not only sang through that horn to-night, but that she lied to me. She told me once that she had no voice, and yet 'by request' she sang into that horn, and very sweetly, too, the very song to which she played an accompaniment when Clarke and I met for the first time. The effrontery of it was confounding."
"Maybe there was a confederate."
"That doesn't sweeten the mess very much."
"No, and yet it wouldn't be quite so bad. But go on--what else?"
"Then I was invited by the 'controls'--so Clarke said--to come up and sit beside the medium, which I did, very loathly. It gave me a keen pang to look down on that lovely creature pretending to sleep, knowing perfectly well that she was planning some deep deception."
"You are bitter. What next?"
"I took a seat beside her, determined to see if she really had a hand in the deception. I thought I could prevent anything happening."
"Did you?"
"No. Everything went on quite as briskly as before, and all the while I thought I could see her arms lying limp along her chair--lovely arms they were, too. She isn't poor, you must understand that, Kate; and that really makes the crime worse, for she has not the usual excuse--she is not doing it for her daily bread."
Kate sat like a judge, "Go on. You seized her, of course?"
"Yes; just when the cone was emitting an old man's pompous harangue I laid my hand on her arm. The horn dropped, the circle rose in confusion, and I came away."
"I expected you'd do that. All sceptics do, I believe. But I want to know all that took place. You're so concise. You say the cone emitted a man's voice. Now, how could--"